ASTRONEER

Update 0.6.5 live!

This update is another foundational change, with an overhaul to rover visuals and functionality! Now Astroneers can operate new rovers with updated visuals, storage and suspension, as well as the ability to create mobile bases by unpacking base modules on the rover chassis. Also included in this update are splitters, a tool to direct power flow, and a plethora of new base platforms so players can create even more custom base configurations.

----------UPDATES---------

You can find these updates in 0.6.5.0, the current build of the game.

VEHICLES

The Medium Rover and Large Rover have received a visual update. This includes new front and back slots which provide extra storage. These slots will only be active if the power line below them is unconnected. Once the power line is connected to another Rover or Platform base, the slots will fold down and drop any items attached to them. Old rovers should transfer over seamlessly.

The visual representation for Rover batteries has been changed. But their discharge and capacity is unchanged.

Rovers have received an update to their suspension. Handling should be much better. Also, gravity on vehicle chassis has been adjusted so Mobile bases should be more stable.

The power connection between Rovers and Platforms has been changed to directional. Now, you can very easily tell if your rover is consuming or providing power from your base. You can use this directional line to prevent the rover from mistaken power draw or discharge.

Research unlock costs relating to Vehicles have been reduced.This change has been made to encourage acquiring Rovers earlier in progression. Specifically:

The Vehicle Bay cost has been reduced from 1000 Bytes to 250 Bytes

The Medium Rover cost has been reduced from 2400 Bytes to 2000 Bytes

The Large Rover cost has been reduced from 8000 Bytes to 6000 Bytes

The Open 1-Seat cost has been reduced from 600 Bytes to 300 Bytes

POWER

A three port Splitter object has been added to the game.The Splitter takes in a power line and creates up to two adjustable directed streams. It is available in the Catalog for 1000 Bytes and prints from the Small Fabricator for 1 Copper.

Directional power visualization has been updated for clarity. The previous version was just placeholder art. The marching chevrons should now be much more readable at a glance.

Power Cells behavior has been changed. They now act as an on demand, single use battery which will only discharge when power is needed by the item they are attached to. Oh, they also no longer provide infinite power.

BASEBUILDING

Modules can now be unpacked on top of Rover bases enabling a kind of Mobile base.

You will still need immense amounts of power to operate a base on wheels, but this should allow for our nomadic players to continue base operations on the go. Also, be aware that once unpacked, base modules on rovers are linked forever. <3

Added new Platform and Storage variants to the game! (KNOWN ISSUE: OLD FABRICATORS WILL NOT UPDATE TO INCLUDE THE NEW PLATFORMS. UNTIL WE ISSUE A FIX, PRINT A NEW FABRICATOR TO SEE THE ENTIRE LIST OF PRINTABLE PLATFORMS.)

Medium Platform B - More compact version of the Medium Platform, costs 250 Bytes to research and 1 Resin to print.

Large Platform B - More compact version of the Large Platform, costs 500 Bytes to research and 2 Resin to print.

Large Platform C - Winged version of the Large Platform which swaps the Tier 2 side slots for 20 Tier 1 slots, costs 2000 Bytes to unlock and 2 Aluminum to print.

Extra Large Platform - An octagonal platform with a single Tier 4 slot, and eight cable sockets, costs 3000 Bytes to unlock and 2 Aluminum to print.

Extra Large Storage - A domed Tier 4 storage platform that prints on top of a Large Rover, or an XL Platform. It contains 31 Tier 1 storage slots, costs 3000 Bytes to unlock, and 2 Compound and 2 Aluminum to print.

The Vehicle Bay can now be operated by a Control Panel.

Module Control Panels have received a lighting pass

INTERACTION

A large number of the orange floating UI buttons have been removed from the game and replaced with interaction verbs. Your bases should look a bit less like a Las Vegas light show.

The default Use verb has been replaced with contextual interaction verbs. For instance the Work Light now uses the verbs “Turn On” and “Turn Off,” while Drop Pods, Habitats, and Seats now use “Enter” and “Exit.”

AUDIO UPDATES

Update Smelter Audio, better end loops. Less Abrupt.

Added variations for Base Building.

Hazard Plant SFX

OTHER UPDATES

Items in the Catalog have been slightly reorganized.

---------BUG FIXES---------

[AS-1831] - Fixed a longstanding bug where Tether lines did not go dark in Multiplayer games when disconnected from an Oxygen source.

[AS-2237] - Fixed a bug where the Astroneer’s headlamp would turn off while dying inside a Drop Pod

[AS-2545] - Fixed an issue with cables twisting in strange ways in relation to the planet center.

[AS-2546] - Fixed an issue with power sockets on platforms twisting cables in strange ways in relation to the planet center.

Due to the physics constraints of the world, vehicle chains have once again been limited to a maximum of 4 Rover bases.

Every time I see one of these updates and it talks about vehicle improvement, I roll my eyes. And sure enough, I'm rolling my eyes again. And I'm uninstalling. Again. I finally got to the point where I could make a vehicle in a new test, and every time I exit the vehicle, it launches. It's about as unstable as I've seen so far, although not quite as bad as when you hit a rock and your vehicle would launch into orbit.

I keep trying, though, because I really do like the game. I kinda miss the old researching, but the new stuff is growing on me now. However, if I hadn't played it the old way, I'd have a really hard time figuring out what to research next.

I love mobile bases BUT THE BIG FUN ONES ALWAYS SINK INTO THE GROUND!!! So sad, usually just the back car, though it's still buried and verticle. Sometimes they sink again before I can dig them out as I'm digging it out. It ups the challenge factor, which has its fun moments, but can be frustrating and leads to other glitches.

My craziest is 4 large rovers, #1 power and storage #2 smelter and med printer, #3 fuel condenser and medium fabricator, #4 mineral and vehicle bay (VB at the back so ships will land behind caravan instead of on it lol voice of experience)

So basically no matter what hapens, you can always just build a small ship and head back to base! It's neat but it it keeeeep siiinking, please help! If I'm simply "flying too close to the sun" then I totally understand, but sometimes it even happens with small rover chains of 3. Please say tell me there's a solution! I love this game, almost 400 hours, but the mobile base is my favorite part right now.

You can do anything you want, the source code is readily available and it would be possible to do this with enough time and resources. Before GPU acceleration, games commonly had a software render option, which did all the rendering on the CPU. iRay and v-Ray have the ability to do a hybrid render where they split the shader calls over both CPU and GPU. Since they don't have to deal with engine loops it works out in that scenario.Games today use a shader heavy pipeline so there is no way to render all that on a CPU, it would kill your machine to a level that would prevent it from even using the main menu. The main reason for this is GPU's are parallel processors while CPU's are serial based. The Hybrid render system could be a solution but would require a complete overhaul of the monolithic code that runs UE4's render pipeline, It's impractical, but not impossible.I would recommend getting the EXP GDC external pci-e bay. This would let you use a GPU on your laptop externally.

That's not how games work at all.You can't just make a mode that'll shift the performance onto either GPU or CPU, you can only lower the load of the bottleneck. Some things are simply GPU bound, and some are GPU bound. This can't be changed, even if you did, the performance would become at least twice (or more) as bad, since CPU's cannot handle the load that GPU's handle.

Also remember that it does not matter how well another game may run: Astroneer is Early Access and still Alpha. Also different games have different requirements to begin with.

I have a suggestion for us gamers without overly powerful GPUs. Can we have a more CPU intensive mode that takes the stress off our GPU and weighs on the CPU instead? Like my rig for example I am in the process of building it (project PC) and I do not have the money for the graphics card that I need to finish it so I have 32gb of ram with a maximum safely overclocked Intel i7 4790k. I can play Dying Light easily enough because it is a CPU intensive game not a GPU intensive game. I can also play SAO Fatal Bullet fairly easily too while still hitting 60FPS (my TVs refresh rate) so if you could add in a CPU intensive mode for people without beefy GPUs but powerful CPUs that would be awesome! Oh and PLEASE PLEASE FIX THE SETTINGS NOT SAVING!!!